Life Support
' |image= |series= |production=40513-459 |producer(s)= |story= Christian Ford and Roger Soffer |script= Ronald D. Moore |director=Reza Badiyi |imdbref=tt0708564 |guests=Louise Fletcher as Kai Winn, Philip Anglim as Bareil Antos, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, Lark Voorhies as Leanne, Andrew Prine as Legate Turrel and Ann Gillespie as Nurse Jabara |previous_production= Past Tense Part 2 |next_production=Heart of Stone |episode= DS9 S03E13 |airdate= 30 January 1995 |previous_release=(DS9) Past Tense Part 2 (Overall) Time and Again |next_release=(DS9) Heart of Stone (Overall) Phage |story_date(s)=48498.4 (2371) |previous_story=(DS9) Past Tense Part 2 (Overall) Time and Again |next_story=(DS9) Heart of Stone (Overall) Phage }} Summary A Bajoran transport accident fatally injures Vedek Bareil, forcing Bashir to use extraordinary means to bring him back from the dead. At the time, Bareil was travelling with Kai Winn to conduct secret negotiations with Legate Turrel. The negotiations promised to bring a final peace between Bajor and Cardassia and possibly even the issuance of a formal apology for the atrocities of the occupation by Cardassian forces. Bareil has been the primary catalyst for though he is still recovering from the accident, Winn insists on moving the negotiations to DS9. She believes they must continue quickly to maintain momentum. Unfortunately, Bashir’s method for recovering Bareil has damaged his circulatory system. Bashir tells Bareil that a drug named Vasokin may allow him to assist Winn during the talks, but it can cause damage on its own. Bareil tells Bashir to proceed. As feared, the drug first destroys Bareil’s internal organs and then the left side of his brain. Bashir replaces everything with artificial implants. ln the end, Turrel signs the treaty, but during the celebration the right half of Bareil’s brain becomes damaged as well. At this, Bashir refuses to do any more, choosing to allow the vedek to die as a man~—not as a machine. Errors and Explanations Plot Oversights # In his log entry Sisko claims that he is sitting in on the Cardassian/Bajoran peace talks as an impartial observer. However, minutes later, he gives advice to Kai Winn. Since when do “impartial observers” give advice to one side in a negotiation? Sisko is the Emissary of the Bajoran Prophets. # At one point the Cardassian representative to the peace talks, Legate Turrel, suggests that Cardassia will make reparations for all Bajoran property damaged in the occupation provided Bajor returns all Cardassian property. Winn is uncertain how to respond, and later she tells Sisko that she suspects Turrel is up to something. Well...wouldn’t this “property” include the station? If Bajor had to return the station, wouldn't that put a kink in their ability to lay claim to the wormhole? Technically, the station is now Bajoran property, as the Cardassians abandoned it when they withdrew. # After the above exchange, a frustrated Kai Winn tells Sisko that she was chosen by the Prophets to lead her people, but not to sit in a room with a Cardassian debating legalisms and diplomatic nuances. This is actually a very sensible statement. After all, Bajor does have a provisional government. Wouldn’t peace negotiations with Cardassia Prime fall in the purview of the civil government? Why is Kai Winn conducting these negotiations in the first place? Maybe the government thought it would have more impact to have the Kai - a representative of the religious group that was suppressed during the Cardassian occupation – reaching an agreement with the Cardassians. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan on Saturday, May 08, 1999 - 7:08 am: Kai Winn says that she knows that the Prophets picked her to be Kai. Clearly she was just putting on an act since to become Kai, Winn has resorted to sabotage, attempted murder, allowing a follower to be executed, siding with an extremist and granting sanctuary to a collaborator. (And those examples were just off the top of my head.) Josh G. on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 - 12:09 pm: She is certainly self-righteous enough to believe that she was "chosen" by the Prophets. (Although, now we know that she never really believed in them, anyway.) # My nephew, Jon, wondered why they didn't just stick Bariel in stasis and then bring him out when Kai Winn had enough questions to justify taking him out? Putting Bariel in stasis may have done more harm than good. # Josh G. on Tuesday, February 29, 2000 - 12:09 pm: Does anyone else think that it was unethical for Bashir to tell Bareil about a potentially lethal, unproven, dangerous drug? Desperate times call for desperate measures. Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine